As will be readily appreciated by golfers, much of the difficulty in playing golf in a successful manner is involved in ensuring that the orientation of the golf club head is exactly correct at the instant of impact of the club head against the ball.
Consequently, many golfers spend much time practising their golf swings with different types of golf club. However, such practising cannot be performed, for example, in a room of a normal household, because most houses and apartments have ceilings which are only eight feet high and a full swing with a wood or iron golf club would therefore produce holes and other damage to the ceilings of such rooms. Furthermore, a wide-open space is required in order to avoid damage to the contents of the room, and it has been estimated that an area of at least fifteen feet by twelve feet of open space would be required to enable a golfer to swing a driver comfortably. A still further danger is the risk of damage to the surface of the floor, because of the absolute necessity of contact of the golf club with the floor. In this connection, golfers will appreciate that, on a golf course, it is necessary to remove a small divot during a swing in order to achieve correct flight of the ball. Even if the contents of a room could be displaced to provide sufficient space for a full swing, and if a protective covering could be placed on the floor, it is nevertheless not feasible, without great expense and difficulty, to raise the ceilings of most rooms to avoid damage.
Previous attempts have been made to provide apparatus for facilitating the practising of golf swings.
For example, United States Patent 4,137,566, issued Jan. 13, 1987 to Steven L. Haas et al, disclosed an apparatus and method for analysing a golf swing and displaying the results in which light sources are attached to appropriate locations on the golfer himself or on a golf club, the light from these light sources being detected by electro-optical sensors having different fields of view encompassing the golfer and the golf club during at least a portion of the golf swing. The outputs of the sensors are electronically processed to provide alpha-numeric or graphic data for display. However, as will be immediately apparent from the above remarks, the disadvantage of this prior apparatus and method is that they require the user to swing a golf club, which as explained above is impractical in many rooms.
Another prior art golf swing practising apparatus is shown in United States Patent 4,254,956, issued Mar. 10, 1981 to Thomas L. Rusnak, which discloses apparatus for photoelectrically sensing the time and position of a golf club head at selected stations along a practise swing. Corresponding characteristics of the swing and the resulting ball flight are computed electrically and displayed to the player. However, once again, this prior apparatus has the disadvantage that it requires the use of a real golf club or, at least, a simulated golf club having the same dimensions as a real golf club.
In United States Patent 4,542,906, issued Sept. 24, 1985 to Akio Takase et al, there is disclosed a computer-aided golf training device which detects movement of a golf ball immediately after the ball has been impacted by a club head. Consequently, this prior apparatus again requires the use of a golf club and, further, has the disadvantage that it requires a ball to be struck and thereby put into flight, which would increase even further the space required.